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5 Screenwriters You Need to Know: Part II

By Jameson Brown · September 26, 2014

Screenwriters You Need to Know will now be an ongoing series that gives you five more writers you should be researching. Correct, I said researching. Part I featured some great talent, but this list is even better with some truly creative penmanship being represented. 

 

5. Diablo Cody

With Juno being her obvious slam-dunk, Diablo Cody is not a one-hit wonder. In fact, her contributions to United States of Tara were a perfect fit for her writing style. She has had some stinkers come down the pike, but she has also penned some profound characters as well – Mavis Gary to be specific. 

 

4. Nora Ephron 

Bottom line: Nora Ephron was a class act woman and her screenwriting and character relationships reflected that. Having made a turn with When Harry Met Sally, Ephron went on to create some of the most memorable characters we still quote today.

 

3. Debra Granik

A talent that I wish would put more out there, Granik captures some of the hardest hitting Southern Gothic grit onscreen since Sling Blade. She knows how to play environment as character, in both her writing and her directing. 

 

2. Lisa Cholodenko

Cholodenko makes writing [unique] family dynamics and dysfunction look so easy. The reason it looks easy? The reason it comes off so natural onscreen? Yeah, this is why she is number two on this list. 

 

1. Sofia Coppola

Viewers were nervous about Coppola’s career after The Godfather: Part III, but luckily she saved herself with writing that profoundly taps into the human psyche with precision and artistic resonance. Like Cody, some of her more recent work has been subpar, but she is ultimately a great visionary whose writing examines life from a worldy view with characters who are always searching for meanings that might exist in different ways than they intended.